The countless victims of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs are celebrating his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity as a momentous first step toward justice. Though the action of the International Criminal Court sends a strong warning to perpetrators of state terror in positions of power, many of those who financed, enforced, and even continued in his state-sponsored killing campaign have not been held accountable.

That list includes U.S. presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and current Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Will the international community have the resolve to hold responsible those complicit in his atrocities as well?

In 2018 and 2024, two international people’s tribunals in Brussels brought together families of victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines under both the Duterte and Marcos administrations before a jury of parliamentarians and legal experts. The testimonies shared in person demonstrated that the bloody campaign of Duterte extended beyond his term, into that of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the........

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